Will the Internet run out of bandwidth? That’s the concern expressed by an upcoming study, and it could mean the end of the Internet as we know it. Uselessly slow Web sites (think: YouTube, Hulu), Internet “brownouts” (“please wait: processing request”), and general mayhem could be the norm in just a few years’ time. So let’s freak out about it.
The study, carried out by Nemertes Research, suggests that the proliferation of bandwidth-intensive Web sites (again, YouTube, Hulu, and iPlayer for you Brits) and services (BitTorrent) is wreaking havoc on the Internet’s fragile infrastructure. The implication is that, sure, the Internet can handle World Wide Web hyperlinks as the day is long, but once you have millions of people streaming and downloading video, the whole thing comes crashing down.
The recession has only made things worse. More people are home (not at work, then) either passing the time fiddling online or cruising craigslist looking for jobs.
Compare the Internet today to the Internet of only a few years ago. Did we have The Simpsons on demand in the year 2000? Nope. At best you could troll alt.tv.simpsons to find links to Web sites that had a weekly Real Media encode of that week’s episode (as I remember it). Or you could read the script on snpp.com. In fact, “The amount of traffic generated each month by YouTube is now equivalent to the amount of traffic generated across the entire internet in all of 2000.” Yikes.
(How great would it be if all this “cloud” nonsense takes off, and then you can’t access your data in a timely manner?)
In any event, call me a skeptic. I’ve read too many “the Internet is doomed!” articles to take ‘em seriously any more. Or, as they say on message boards, pics or it didn’t happen.
Ack, dont fall for the attempt from ISPs to lobby for metered billing and the like…
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/The-Exaflood-Myth-Just-Wont-Die-102202
I’ve been involved in a number of bleeding edge technologies including internet applications and I too have heard about the demise of the web, but what I’ve learned over time is to do your due diligence. I have and conclude that the CLOUD is real and will succeed.
Courtney Benson takes it in the pooper!!
THATS WHAT SHE SAID
This is just an attempt by cable companines to justify charging more. Bandwith is becoming a commodity…Cable companies will not be needed to supply content in the near future, only bandwidth. Their business model is failing. I’m not suprised that this story was front and center on Fox News – the most misquided and devious news outlet out there.
because cnn is completely balanced, honest, and important. dipshit
I am sure that back in the days the Telephone companies said that they were running out of wires too.
repeat after me.
There is no such thing as a bandwidth shortage !!
Hulu runs plenty fast for me…
people thought I was crazy saving all my free AOL minutes…..whos laughing now
The Internet is not a thing, it is a concept. Concepts cannot run out of commodities since they are incapable of possessing facets.
“The Internet” cannot have its bandwidth saturated, only specific links between nodes can become saturated. This is not a problem because when that happens all we have to do is add more vectors. That’s why we have all those pretty shiny things floating in space.
This is just fearmongering to try to justify metered pricing.
The internet has virtually no limit.
If the internet is running out of bandwidth, what percentage are we at now?
My hard drive is almost out of room. It’s at 90%. To run out of something it must be quantifiable. So to run out of internets we must have a set amount of internets available. How much internet do I have? Do you have? Does the world have.
The internet is a network, much like the road systems. Most people use the internet lightly, like the people driving cars to work and the store, then we have the BitTorrent gang who drive Semis hauling 2.5 trailers, and then we have the people who stream funny videos who drive the U Haul back and forth a lot until they get drunk and pass out.
The only reason traffic jams happen is because of accidents which can’t easily be avoided by traffic already on that road, the internet can reroute traffic fairly easily so as long as we have more routes the internet should be fine.
Then again I’m just speculating as to how I think it works based on my one networking class.
now we know, and knowing is half the battle, haha
I urge people to read the source report on Nemertes website. You’ll see that we are explicit that the backbone, fiber and metro layers of the Internet will scale to meet all projected demand. The problem is the last mile where we project potential demand growth outpacing capacity growth. All of the above posts about Internet routing and survivability are correct – for the Internet core. The challenge is they don’t apply to the last mile. You can find the report and FAQ at:
FAQ: http://nemertes.com/internet_infrastructure_study_2009_frequently_asked_questions_faq
Report: http://www.nemertes.com/studies/internet_interrupted_why_architectural_limitations_will_fracture_net
Ted Ritter
Nemertes Research
I blame the black people.
Any one who knows anything about technology or the internet knows the internet is not going to run out of bandwith. It is called FIBER OPTICS!! compression, wavelengths, ect.